Wikimedia Commons
Asteraceae
Hawaiian Silversword
Argyroxiphium sandwicense
Resilience in extreme conditions and once-in-a-lifetime spectacle.
- Family
- Asteraceae
- Genus
- Argyroxiphium
- Native to
- Hawaii
- Bloom season
- Summer
- Type
- monocarpic perennial
- Height
- 90–180 cm
- Sunlight
- full sun
- Soil
- volcanic cinder, well-drained
- Water
- low; fog-dependent
- Hardiness
- 10–12
- Lifespan
- 20–90 years; blooms once then dies
Did you know
- Each silversword grows for up to 90 years as a rosette, then sends up a massive flower stalk and dies after blooming.
- The silvery leaf hairs reflect intense UV radiation on the volcanic summit of Haleakala at over 3,000 m elevation.
- It evolved from a tarweed ancestor that arrived from California roughly 5 million years ago.
- By the 1920s, the Haleakala silversword was nearly extinct due to goat grazing and tourist vandalism.
- A single flowering stalk can bear over 600 flower heads, each packed with tiny purple-red disc florets.
Color meanings
0
resilience
1
uniqueness
2
rarity